California Man Convicted on Felony Theft, Forgery Charges

Porter Ranch, Calif., resident Craig Randall has been found guilty of 13 counts of theft of funds by a broker or agent, two counts of forgery, one count of attempted theft of funds and one count of attempting to dissuade a witness from reporting a crime, according to the California Department of Insurance. He was sentenced Nov. 30 in Los Angeles County to three years probation and 300 hours of California Department of Transportation clean up.

Randall was facing as many as six years in prison. He also was ordered to pay $60,140 in restitution, including $11,932 to one of his victims, according to CDI.

CDI investigators said Randall, owner of EZ Discount Insurance Services Inc. in Chatsworth, Calif., collected $48,207.42 from 24 clients for commercial general liability insurance. Randall collected premium payments from his victims, but failed to remit the premium payments to insurers. After cashing the checks, sometimes at a check-cashing store, Randall pocketed the money to pay for gas, food and pay his employees’ wages. Randall submitted bogus certificates of insurance on two occasions to make it appear that his clients’ businesses were insured.

Randall placed his victims in financial jeopardy and exposed the public to the danger of uninsured losses. At least one victim suffered an uninsured loss. Investigators were also able to determine that on at least one occasion Randall attempted to convince a victim not to report the crime in exchange for a 50 percent reduction in a premium.

Randall was originally arrested on Jan. 20, 2009. He was ordered not to be in possession of insurance files other than his own, not to be employed by an insurance company in any capacity or consult or advise on matters of insurance to anyone. Randall’s insurance license has been suspended since his arrest, CDI said.